A moving company with intermodal containers? That's right! Several of Allied's franchisees operate 48' containers in both the rib side and smooth side design seen here. The prototype containers are equipped with flush fitting (to the point of being difficult to see) curb side doors in addition to the rear doors to speed loading and unloading. These containers do operate in stack train service and occasionally on chassis on flat cars. The two containers are sublettered for two different moving companies. One belongs to Bluebird Transfer of Vancouver, Washington (right across the river from Portland, Oregon.) The other is lettered for Moore's Moving & Storage of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Both prototypes were photographed in the same BNSF stack train racing across the Lower Mojave desert earlier this year. As you can see, the logos are reversed on each side of the container so that the Highway 1 logo always points to the front of the container. This kind of lettering arrangement is common on domestic 48' containers but rarely seen on international standard containers.
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